A MOMENT'S PEACE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100002-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 20, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: March 3, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sl Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100002-3
WASHINGTON POST
S MAW "RORY
A Moment's Peace
n the old days, when Howard H. Baker slated for secretary of state in
' Baker Jr. spoke at the White House the Dole administration. It's blue skies
as Senate majority leader, he had to from now on. The Tower commission,
please 55 Republicans. The outer they tell themselves, has done its worst;
branches of his flock. Lowell P. Weicker independent counsel Lawrence E.
Jr. (R-Conn.) and Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), Walsh and the two congressional
were never satisfied, but the center committees will be dispensing
was. anticlimax.
Now, as White House chief of staff, It is springtime until they think about
he has a constituency of one-er, make the second half of the commission's
that two. Nancy Reagan has established report, and then the biting winds begin
herself as the steel in the Oval Office. to blow. The first half, which is about
When her husband blanched at firing the Iranian arms deal, is awkward, but
Donald T. Regan, she said to him in not basically unmanageable. Sure,
effect, as Lady Macbeth to her lord, everyone agrees, it was mad even to
"Oh, infirm of purpose, give me the think about selling arms to the
daggers." When Regan As at length ayatollah, but at least there was a
dispatched, the First Lady crowed in a commendable human motive. Everyone
public statement. knows that the Gipper is a soft touch
Baker, a small and exceptionally for a hard-luck story, and who's going
pleasant man, when asked at his first to stay mad at him for wanting to spring
press briefing whether he had conferred the hostages at any cost? The appeals of
with Nancy Reagan, laughed: "I intend the families tore him up,
to, later today." At the sound of a But the diversion of the arms profits
nearby ringing, he chuckled, "And there to the contras is another chilling story.
is the phone now." The money belonged to the U.S.
Republicans, in despair over the loss Treasury, not to Lt. Col. Oliver L.
of Ronald Reagan's magic, hail the North, who saw to its disbursement. It
advent of Baker as nothing less than a was a violation of the law to send lethal
miracle. Their mood changed as aid to the contras.
dramatically as the weather over the The president can say he knew
weekend. The raw cold of winter gave nothing about it. And he has. The
way to a day of dazzling sunshine and Tower commission, without the power
soft breezes; even the endless Sunday of the subpoena or the grand jury,
talk-show discussion of the Tower without the testimony of the two
commission report could not dampen principals, could not begin to trace the
the wild hopes brought by Baker's money, most of which disappeared.
arrival. The president, they said, had The Tower commission really did not
been "scared straight" by its go into it, and would have come up
deferentially stated findings. empty except that a young computer
With Baker, the Republicans know genius on its staff discovered buried
that communication had been restored treasure-the messages that
to the White House along with humor Poindexter and North, indefatigable
and reason. Their calls would be correspondents both, sent each other
returned, their advice respectfully on their terminals.
heard. When Regan left, so did all the North was not the free-booter of
bad trips of the last two initial White House issue. He was a
years-Bitburg, Reykjavik, Iran. docile subordinate, reporting his every
Gone is high-handedness, scorn, move to his superior, Poindexter. The
braggadocio. Baker, from the hard swashbuckler followed the rules of the
school of the Senate, is used to service while breaking the law of the
dissenting opinions, conflicting egos, land. He reported to Poindexter. And
collapsing agreements. His patience in Poindexter reported to whom?
the face of snags, delays, tantrums, is North, in the most radioactive
legendary. paragraph in the Tower commission
His first day in his new place of report, writes, "The president obviously
business ht as disa mtment. The knows why he had been meeting with
withdrawal o o rt Gates as the several select people to thank them for
new CIA director was their support for democracy in
Wit. The hope of announcing CentAm."
another candidate fell When the music occasioned by his
through-explaining three arrival stops, Baker may find himself
postponements of his first briefing. spending much of his time trying to
Republicans see the miracle man answer the question he made immortal
guiding the party back into the sunlight, during his service on the Watergate
Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) emerging as committee: "What did the president
the consensus presidential nominee, know, and when did he know it?"
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504100002-3